


despite everything (it's still you)

by lovelylogans



Series: 13 days of halloween [12]
Category: Sanders Sides (Web Series)
Genre: Crying, Depression, Gen, Sadness, Undertale References, Undertale Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-30
Updated: 2019-10-30
Packaged: 2021-01-13 06:14:11
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 785
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21239483
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lovelylogans/pseuds/lovelylogans
Summary: Virgil had introduced him to it, actually, through one of those jokes that Patton never seemed to get—he knows now that it was a joke about Sans, which is apparently pretty popular online. Patton can get that—and had showed him a couple videos of playing through the game.And when the price dropped to $5, well, it sure was less than a Sims expansion pack, and any game that prides itself on its punnery is a game that sounds fun to him.or: the world is cold and mean and bad, sometimes, and patton thinks that some video game escapism is far from the worst thing in the world.





	despite everything (it's still you)

**Author's Note:**

> so, this is for the 13 days of halloween prompt over at [@sanderssidescelebrations!](nderssidescelebrations.tumblr.com/post/187843455281/sanders-sides-spooky-month) today’s prompt is **monsters! **i have only borderline fulfilled it! this headcanon occurred to me and now i can’t stop myself from thinking about it! *kicks _undertale_ back under the bed after i got distracted, reinstalled it, played it through again, and wrote a fic about patton playing it and getting emotional, all while procrastinating my schoolwork*

Patton’s not really a tech-savvy kind of fella.

This is probably to be expected—Roman teases him for being a “total dad,” electronics included. It’s not _his_ fault that the hip holster for his phone is convenient AND a surefire way he won’t forget his phone at home, most days. And sure, he doesn’t really know how most things on his computer _work,_ but if there’s an error screen he can just present his laptop to Logan with a sunny smile, and Logan will huff and fix it for him. And fine, _maybe_ he really doesn’t get the jokes online that Virgil seems to laugh at a lot, but he really does try to search and send them to him when Virgil seems to be having rough days, even if he doesn’t fully understand why it makes him happy.

But Patton _does_ know how to play a few video games.

His laptop seems to wheeze and groan under the amount of space that the Sims and all the expansions takes up—he managed to find most of them on some kind of bargain sale, because Logan help him set up an alert for when the price drops enough that he can excuse buying one as a splurge to treat himself. He likes making little families, with puppies and kittens, and sure, maybe he gets emotionally attached, and _sure,_ maybe he’s genuinely cried when some of his Sims die from old age, but it’s a fun game and he enjoys playing it. 

There’s another that he finds himself logging into and playing through whenever the world gets a bit sharp and cold and hard, and Patton feels like burying himself under his blankets and sleeping for a long time.

Virgil had introduced him to it, actually, through one of those jokes that Patton never seemed to get—he knows now that it was a joke about Sans, which is apparently pretty popular online. Patton can get that—and had showed him a couple videos of playing through the game.

And when the price dropped to $5, well, it sure was less than a Sims expansion pack, and any game that prides itself on its punnery is a game that sounds fun to him.

And then Patton had spent the whole day on his bed, engrossed, and he _did_ cry when he managed to play the game and at the end all of the characters were staring at the sun rise and Toriel asked him to stay with her.

Well, he’d shed a tear or two a couple times throughout the game—when Toriel kept talking about how happy she was to finally have some company and when Patton realized he actually _couldn’t_ just stay in the Ruins and that he had to keep going and her boss battle, when he realized that a ton of Papyrus’ lines were pointing toward him being _lonely,_ Alphys’ _whole_ backstory, the whole _Dreemurr family_ backstory, plus just, like, Asgore’s whole _thing,_ when all of Frisk’s new monster friends showed up and told them not to give up at the end, the whole “but it refused” part, when Frisk hugs Asriel—but to this day, Patton still isn’t really sure if it’s because the game touched his heart that much or because of how sad he was, that day.

Then the next day, he sat through and played it again.

He isn’t really sure _why_ he likes the game so much. Maybe it’s the sense of community the monsters have—no one’s ever really _rude_ to his character, outside of the dummy, they’re all so nice and welcoming and cordial—or maybe it’s just the whole found family trope. 

Or maybe it’s just because of the warm kind of feeling there is when he finishes—the characters all really _care_ about each other.

Patton knows he’s got people that care about him, of course he does. But, well, sometimes Roman avoids emotions, and Virgil isn’t exactly _open_ with emotions, and if Virgil’s like a cracked door when it comes to emotions then Logan is a bank-level uncrackable safe, and some days even if he _knows_ that people care about him and love him, he just—he feels a bit _delicate,_ sometimes. So it’s nice to use some kind of escapism, on those days. Just to carry some of those messages with him. To pass them on.

Patton knows full well that the world can be dark and scary and dangerous. But he knows that it can be light and friendly and loving, too. And Patton believed that the latter outshone the former. He really, truly did.

Sometimes, it’s just nice to have a reminder that other people feel that way, too.

**Author's Note:**

> roman, upon realizing that the way patton plays feeds into sans' whole genocide ending: i'm gonna tell him  
virgil: DON'T YOU DARE


End file.
